Opposite Strategies Research Articles

High trophic specialization structures the epi- to bathypelagic fish community in the Bay of Biscay

The deep-pelagic ecosystem is characterized by significant environmental gradients, particularly in food resources. The absence of primary production below the epipelagic zone leads to a decrease in food resources with depth. Two opposite feeding strategies have been described for this community in response to this decline in food resources: stochasticity, with species adopting opportunistic feeding strategies with a generalist diet, and determinism, with species segregating and specializing to mitigate strong interspecific competition through niche partitioning. To test these aspects, we analyzed the isotopic niches of 16 fish species using stable isotope analysis of carbon and nitrogen carried out on muscle samples. The data were collected in canyons of the Bay of Biscay between 25 and 1335 m. Our primary objective was to identify isotopic niche segregation or overlap and determine whether species sharing similar isotopic niches show depth-based segregation by grouping them into trophic guilds and comparing their depth distribution with trawl data. We then used null model comparisons to test whether competition resulted in smaller values of isotopic niche size and overlap within each depth assemblage compared to those obtained by chance. We found that several species with similar isotopic niches were segregated based on depth. The comparison with null models showed that competition drove species to reduce niche size and specialize to avoid strong interspecific competition in the epi- to bathypelagic layers. Utilizing isotopic diversity indices weighted by biomass, our calculation showed significant divergence within the community, indicating that species with the highest biomass had extreme isotopic values. The high degree of specialization of species raises concerns about their vulnerability to various pressures, including climate change and exploitation. At the community level, this vulnerability is also a concern in maintaining the integrity of ecological processes.

Multi-strategy improved sand cat optimization algorithm-based workflow scheduling mechanism for heterogeneous edge computing environment

Edge computing is one of the predominant technologies which facilitates the option of bringing out the computing resources closer to the location of the end users when they are utilized by them. This facility offered by edge computing technology need to reduce the utilization of network bandwidth and response time with respect to the user’s workflow. In this paper, Multi-Strategy Improved Sand Cat Swarm Optimisation Algorithm (MSISCSOA)-based workflow scheduling mechanism is proposed for handling the challenges of workflow scheduling in cloud-edge computing environment. The core objective of this MSISCSOA-based workflow scheduling algorithm targets on minimizing the execution latency and energy consumption to facilitate timely and on-demand end users’ satisfaction of resources. This MSISCSOA scheme is adopted with the improvement introduced using random variation and elite collaborative strategies, such that well-balanced the trade-off between exploration and exploitation is achieved. This improvement is introduced over Sand Cat Optimization Algorithm (SCOA) using the merits of dynamic random search and joint opposite selection strategies that accelerates the convergence of the algorithm with increased global optimization and searching efficiency. It specifically improved SCOA using random variation for escaping from the local point of optimality. It also used well distributed pareto fronts and population evolution multi-strategy that aids in searching solutions with maximized diversity. The simulation experiments conducted using the datasets of Montage, Cybershake, LIGO and SIPHT an average confirmed minimized execution latency of 21.38 % and energy consumptions of 19.56 %, better than the baseline Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm-Based Workflow Scheduling (IACOAWS), Quadratic Penalty Function-based Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm (QPF-PSOA), Biogeography Optimization (BBO) Algorithm based Multi-Objective Task Scheduling (BBOAMOTS) and Different Evolution-based Task Clustering and Scheduling (DETCS) approaches used for comparative investigation.

Scope assignment in quantifier-negation sentences in early Korean-Chinese bilinguals’ grammars

Quantifier-negation sentences allow an inverse scope reading in many languages, but this phenomenon is not observed in Chinese. Building on the work of Chen and Huan (2023), this study investigates whether early Korean-Chinese bilinguals can make a distinction between Korean and Chinese in terms of the inverse scope. Employing the sentence-picture matching truth value judgment experiment from Chen and Huan (2023), we recruited a group of 23 early Korean-Chinese bilinguals and 15 monolingual Korean speakers. The experimental results aligned with those of Chen and Huan (2023), which identified three distinct groups of bilinguals. The first group permits an inverse scope reading in both Korean and Chinese, the second group prohibits it in both languages, and the third group successfully distinguishes between Korean and Chinese regarding inverse scope. These findings suggest that early bilinguals may experience long-lasting crosslinguistic influence that extends into adulthood. They may adopt either of two opposite strategies when constructing sentences, both of which can potentially minimize syntactic differences between their two languages.

Opposite Responses of Native and Nonnative Birds to Socioeconomics in a Latin American City.

Due to the massive increase of the urban population, a global target is to achieve sustainable cities that are sensitive to nature and environmentally just for urban dwellers. To accomplish this, it is important to understand the responses of native and nonnative birds, identify the environmental variables that promote native species and limit nonnative species, and understand how they vary among socioeconomic groups. Although many cities in the Global South exhibit strong social and environmental segregation, few studies have investigated the relationship between socioeconomics and biodiversity. Therefore, to help promote ecological justice and biodiversity conservation in the developing world, we investigated the influence of socioeconomic level and woody cover on bird species richness and abundance in the city of Santiago de Chile. We also investigated whether bird response changes with species provenance-it is important to understand the response of native birds separately from nonnative birds because they imply opposite management strategies (e.g., conservation vs. species control/eradication). Thus, we surveyed 120 sites located in residential areas of high, medium, and low socioeconomic levels across the city and fit generalized linear (mixed) models that described bird species richness and abundance for total, native, and nonnative birds according to socioeconomic level and woody vegetation cover. We found that both socioeconomic level and woody vegetation cover influenced the bird community, but their effects changed with bird species origin, having opposite effects on native and nonnative birds. Residential areas where wealthier people live supported greater species richness and abundance of native birds than residential areas where people of lower socioeconomic status live. In contrast, residential areas where vulnerable people live had greater bird abundance that was mainly composed of nonnative birds. Therefore, affluent neighborhoods provide more opportunities to encounter native birds and experience nature close to home than poorer neighborhoods. Due to woody cover having positive effects on native birds and a negative influence on nonnative birds, increasing tree and shrub cover will contribute to supporting more native birds in residential areas deprived of woody vegetation, which are commonly low socioeconomic areas. Additional variables that can explain bird response among residential areas of different socioeconomic levels need to be investigated to better understand the factors influencing the distribution of birds in cities and promote a more biodiverse and environmentally just city.

Strength and oxidation resistance of Laves phase-containing refractory Nb-Ti-Zr-Cr alloys: Effect of chemical complexity

For a refractory Nb-Ti-Zr-Cr alloy system, we show that the effect of increasing chemical complexity, which is accepted as the main source for unique properties of high-entropy alloys, on the strength and oxidation resistance is sensitive to the particular elements added. A transition from pure Nb to NbTi and then to NbTiZr alloys that retained a single-phase body-centred cubic (bcc) structure improved the ambient-to-high-temperature strength and oxidation resistance at 1000 °C. However, the further addition of Cr that resulted in the Laves phase formation broke the trend. In the case of dual-phase bcc + Laves phase alloys, binary Nb100-xCrx alloys were much stronger at T > 600 °C than microstructurally similar multicomponent refractory complex concentrated alloys (RCCAs). Meanwhile, ternary (NbTi)100-xCrx alloys had the best oxidation resistance due to an exclusive formation of a protective Cr2O3 layer. This study emphasises opposite strategies for designing high-performance single-phase bcc and Laves phase-containing Nb-Ti-Zr-Cr RCCAs.

Microstructure and Superelasticity of Cu–Sn Shape-Memory Microwires by Glass-Coated Melt Spinning

Cu–Sn shape-memory microw ires were fabricated by a glass-coated melt spinning method. Effects of Sn content on the microstructure and mechanical properties of microwires were investigated. The phase transforms from martensite to austenite with an increase in Sn from 14.0 atomic percent (at.%) to 16.5 at.%. When the Sn content exceeds 16.5 at.%, a highly ordered intermetallic phase, δ, formed. The fracture stress (σf) and the critical stress for martensitic transformation (σMs) increases with an increase in Sn content. The mechanical properties as well as the superelasticity were greatly improved by a high cooling rate in the glass-coated melt spinning method. A bamboo-grained structure was formed in the Cu–Sn microwire with a Sn content of 16 at.% by annealing at 750 °C for 5 h before quenching in water. The results indicate that two opposite strategies of refining the grain size to the micrometer level, or increasing the grain size to a one dimensional size of specimen, e.g., the diameter of the wire, are both effective in improving the superelasticity of the Cu–Sn alloy.

Neutrophil extracellular traps formation and clearance is enhanced in fever and attenuated in hypothermia.

Fever and hypothermia represent two opposite strategies for fighting systemic inflammation. Fever results in immune activation; hypothermia is associated with energy conservation. Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) remains a significant cause of mortality worldwide. SIRS can lead to a broad spectrum of clinical symptoms but importantly, patients can develop fever or hypothermia. During infection, polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) such as neutrophils prevent pathogen dissemination through the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that ensnare and kill bacteria. However, when dysregulated, NETs also promote host tissue damage. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that temperature modulates NETs homeostasis in response to infection and inflammation. NETs formation was studied in response to infectious (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus) and sterile (mitochondria) agents. When compared to body temperature (37°C), NETs formation increased at 40°C; interestingly, the response was stunted at 35°C and 42°C. While CD16+ CD49d+ PMNs represent a small proportion of the neutrophil population, they formed ~45-85% of NETs irrespective of temperature. Temperature increased formyl peptide receptor 1 (FPR1) expression to a differential extent in CD16+ CD49d- vs. CD49d+ PMNSs, suggesting further complexity to neutrophil function in hypo/hyperthermic conditions. The capacity of NETs to induce Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9)-mediated NF-κB activation was found to be temperature independent. Interestingly, NET degradation was enhanced at higher temperatures, which corresponded with greater plasma DNase activity in response to temperature increase. Collectively, our observations indicate that NETs formation and clearance are enhanced at 40°C whilst temperatures of 35°C and 42°C attenuate this response. Targeting PMN-driven immunity may represent new venues for intervention in pathological inflammation.

Activity budget and seasonal activity shifts in sympatric lemurs: Increased lean season effort in a cathemeral frugivore contrasts with energy conservation in a diurnal folivore.

One of the most fundamental aspects of a species' behavioral strategy is its activity budget; for primates this generally involves the allocation of available time among resting, feeding, traveling, and social behavior. Comparisons between species, populations, or individuals can reveal divergences in adaptive strategies and current stressors, and reflect responses to such diverse pressures as predation, thermoregulation, nutrition, and social needs. Further, variation across seasons is an important part of behavioral strategies to survive food scarcity; this can involve increasing or decreasing effort. We documented activity over the 24-h cycle for the cathemeral, frugivorous Eulemur fulvus and the diurnal, folivorous Propithecus diadema across 13-18 months at Tsinjoarivo, Madagascar. Their activity budgets were dominated by resting (E. fulvus: 74.1%; P. diadema: 85.2%), followed by feeding (15.8%, 12.4%), traveling (9.31%, 1.74%) and social activities (0.76%, 0.70%), respectively. The lower feeding and higher resting in P. diadema likely reflect slower gastrointestinal transit and higher reliance on microbial fermentation to extract energy from fibrous food. The two species showed opposite lean season strategies. E. fulvus increased activity, with more feeding but less travel time, consistent with a shift to less-profitable fruits, and some leaves and flowers, while increasing feeding effort to compensate ("energy maximizing"). P. diadema showed less variation across months, but the lean season still evoked reduced effort across the board (feeding, travel, and social behavior), consistent with a "time minimizing" strategy prioritizing energy conservation and microbe-assisted digestion. Understanding these divergent shifts is key to understanding natural behavior and the extent of behavioral flexibility under stressful conditions. Finally, the complex patterns of fruit availability (intra- and interannually) and the species' behavioral responses across months underscore the need to move beyond simplistic "lean/abundant season" and "fruit/leaf" dichotomies in understanding underlying energetic strategies, and species' vulnerability to habitat change.

Disease-specific protein corona formed in pathological intestine enhances the oral absorption of nanoparticles.

Protein corona (PC) has been identified to impede the transportation of intravenously injected nanoparticles (NPs) from blood circulation to their targeted sites. However, how intestinal PC (IPC) affects the delivery of orally administered NPs are still needed to be elucidated. Here, we found that IPC exerted "positive effect" or "negative effect" depending on different pathological conditions in the gastrointestinal tract. We prepared polystyrene nanoparticles (PS) adsorbed with different IPC derived from the intestinal tract of healthy, diabetic, and colitis rats (H-IPC@PS, D-IPC@PS, C-IPC@PS). Proteomics analysis revealed that, compared with healthy IPC, the two disease-specific IPC consisted of a higher proportion of proteins that were closely correlated with transepithelial transport across the intestine. Consequently, both D-IPC@PS and C-IPC@PS mainly exploited the recycling endosome and ER-Golgi mediated secretory routes for intracellular trafficking, which increased the transcytosis from the epithelium. Together, disease-specific IPC endowed NPs with higher intestinal absorption. D-IPC@PS posed "positive effect" on intestinal absorption into blood circulation for diabetic therapy. Conversely, C-IPC@PS had "negative effect" on colitis treatment because of unfavorable absorption in the intestine before arriving colon. These results imply that different or even opposite strategies to modulate the disease-specific IPC need to be adopted for oral nanomedicine in the treatment of variable diseases.

Three-dimensional modeling of solidification grain structures generated by laser powder bed fusion

Grain structures generated by laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) of the Ni-based superalloy Inconel 718 (IN718) are studied using Cellular Automaton modeling. A hybrid methodology is developed to benefit from a full thermohydraulic simulation that predicts the shape of the consolidated track and the temperature field. The advantage is to reach a large size of the simulation domain while still taking advantage of a thermohydraulic numerical solution of the L-PBF process at the scale of the melt pool. The computed grain structure becomes available in a Representative Elementary Volume (REV) of an Additively Manufactured (AMed) specimen and can be studied statistically considering the distribution of crystallographic orientations and the grain density. It is also possible to vary process and material parameters to approach industrial practice. The strategy consisting in opposite bidirectional scanning of the powder with an additional 67° rotation at each new layer is demonstrated. It is compared with the standard opposite bidirectional monoaxial scanning strategy and the opposite bidirectional orthogonal biaxial scanning strategies with two perpendicular axes, all reproducing trends reported in experimental literature. The generation of virtual REVs of AMed microstructures by L-PBF for IN718 opens the way to study new processing parameters and coupling with models for the prediction of metallurgical properties.

An Improvement Strategy for Indoor Air Quality Monitoring Systems.

Air quality has a huge impact on the comfort and healthiness of various environments. According to the World Health Organization, people who are exposed to chemical, biological and/or physical agents in buildings with low air quality and poor ventilation are more prone to be affected by psycho-physical discomfort, respiratory tract and central nervous system diseases. Moreover, in recent years, the time spent indoors has increased by around 90%. If we consider that respiratory diseases are mainly transmitted from human to human through close contact, airborne respiratory droplets and contaminated surfaces, and that there is a strict relationship between air pollution and the spread of the diseases, it becomes even more necessary to monitor and control these environmental conditions. This situation has inevitably led us to consider renovating buildings with the aim of improving both the well-being of the occupants (safety, ventilation, heating) and the energy efficiency, including monitoring the internal comfort using sensors and the IoT. These two objectives often require opposite approaches and strategies. This paper aims to investigate indoor monitoring systems to increase the quality of life of occupants, proposing an innovative approach consisting of the definition of new indices that consider both the concentration of the pollutants and the exposure time. Furthermore, the reliability of the proposed method was enforced using proper decision-making algorithms, which allows one to consider measurement uncertainty during decisions. Such an approach allows for greater control over the potentially harmful conditions and to find a good trade-off between well-being and the energy efficiency objectives.

Scope assignment in Quantifier-Negation sentences in Tibetan as a heritage language in China

Quantifier-Negation sentences allow an inverse scope reading in Tibetan but not in Chinese. This difference can be attributed to the underlying syntactic difference: the negation word can be raised at Logical Form in Tibetan but not in Chinese. This study investigated whether Chinese-dominant Tibetan heritage speakers know such difference. We conducted a sentence–picture matching truth value judgment task with 28 Chinese-dominant Tibetan heritage speakers, 25 baseline Tibetan speakers and 31 baseline Chinese speakers. Our baseline data first confirmed the difference between Tibetan and Chinese: the inverse scope reading is allowed in Tibetan but prohibited in Chinese. Our heritage participants’ data showed a divergence: one group of heritage speakers allow the inverse scope reading in both Tibetan and Chinese while another group prohibit it in both languages. There is a third group of heritage speakers who are aware of the difference between Tibetan and Chinese. Our findings suggest that while it is possible for heritage speakers to attain nativelike knowledge of an interface phenomenon that differs in their two languages, they may also be subject to crosslinguistic influence and adopt one of two opposite strategies. Both strategies can minimize syntactic differences between their two grammars so an economy of syntactic representations in their repository of grammars can be achieved.

Spatial competition with demand uncertainty: A laboratory experiment

AbstractMotivated by recent research on product differentiation, we conduct laboratory experiments to study how demand uncertainty influences firms' incentives to differentiate. We ground our experiment on a discrete version of the standard location‐then‐price game introduced by Hotelling (1929), and we consider different levels of demand uncertainty. We first derive the game equilibrium assuming risk‐neutral firms, and obtain the standard prediction that a high level of demand uncertainty generates more differentiation. Second, we extend the analysis to consider non‐risk neutral firms and markets with asymmetric risk profiles. We show that the game equilibrium can differ substantially according to the attitude to risk. Third, we compare our predictions with the experimental data and find that demand uncertainty acts as a differentiation force in the context of both symmetric markets composed of risk‐neutral or risk‐lover subjects and asymmetric markets. We find support also for the agglomeration effect arising from demand uncertainty for sufficiently risk‐averse subjects. Overall, these results might explain the opposite product differentiation strategies frequently observed in markets with fast‐evolving tastes (i.e., minimum or maximum differentiation). Finally, the data confirm that subjects differentiate to relax price competition and provide evidence of a strong positive relationship between differentiation and prices.

Maternal effect in salinity tolerance of Daphnia-One species, various patterns?

We experimentally tested the hypothesis that individuals from a single species but genetically different exposed to the same chemical stress factor are able to realize opposite life history strategies-they can invest more resources in current reproduction and release neonates well-prepared to harmful condition or they can invest in their own safety as well as future reproductions and release neonates of poor quality condition. In order to do this, we used the Daphnia-salinity model: we exposed Daphnia magna females originating from various ponds to two concentrations of sodium chloride, and then observed the key life histories parameters of their offspring exposed or not exposed to salinity stress. Our results confirmed the hypothesis. In a clone from one pond, Daphnia exposed to salinity stress produced neonates which were worse-prepared to the local conditions than those released by non-stressed females. In clones from the two other ponds, Daphnia released newborns similarly or better-prepared to cope with the salinity stress, depending on the concentration of salt and the duration of their exposure to salinity. Our results suggest that both longer (two-generational) and stronger (higher salt concentration) impacts of selective factors may be perceived by individuals as information indicating reduced chances of successful reproduction in the future and, thus, they may drive mothers to produce better-prepared descendants.

When origin, reproduction ability and diet define the role of birds in invasions.

The ecological impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) are increasingly documented; however, they are usually studied through the lens of either the IAS or the affected species (IAS-threatened species). A clear understanding of how both protagonists of biological invasions are characterized is still lacking. We investigated the morphology, life history and ecology of birds involved in biological invasions. Evaluating the distribution of 450 IAS-threatened birds and 400 alien birds in a functional space, we found that both groups retained various strategies. Aliens had larger clutches and were more likely to be herbivores than IAS-threatened and worldwide birds, while IAS-threatened birds were more insular endemic from the Australia region than alien and worldwide birds. IAS-threatened species showed opposite strategies to aliens regarding traits related to diet, origin and reproduction. Further comparing traits associated with impact magnitude, we found that even if aliens were mostly herbivorous, those with high impact had more a generalist behaviour and an animal-based diet compared to aliens with low impact. By emphasizing differences relating to the distribution of bird groups in a functional space, we opened new opportunities to identify the role of birds in biological invasions.

Проблема смысла смерти в эпосе Дж.Р.Р. Толкина «Властелин колец» Часть II. Бесконечный и смертный мир Толкина

This article deals with the theme of death in Tolkien’s trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”, which both the author himself and numerous researchers of his texts rec­ognized as the key to understanding of the entire religious and philosophical content of his work. Here this topic is analyzed within the framework of the se­mantic opposition formulated by the concepts of “being towards death” and “es­caping from death”. The article attempts to compare how the theme of death is revealed in a new literary genre which developed during and shortly after the Second World War – the author’s fairy tale (intended primarily for adults) – and how this theme is presented in the concepts of post-war existentialism, espe­cially by Sartre and Heidegger. As a methodology for this comparison this article uses the theory of P. Ricoeur – according to which both literature and philosophy can be considered as two different and partly opposite strategies for “taming time” (by turning it into human time, the time of culture). In the context of this theory, the article also analyzes another problem related to the first one, namely the problem of the mutual influence of the “real world” of human history and the “fictional world” of a literary work. The article confirms the idea expressed by Ricoeur that large-scale events of history can be reflected in a literary work indi­rectly (namely by using complication of the spatio-temporal structure that forms the artistic world of the work). In particular, events such as world wars, which sharply raise the questions of the meaning of history and the meaning of human life, can find interpretation in literary works that “recreate” the space of life and meaning with their own narrative means, both in relation to the individual – and the world as a whole.

Teachers’ goals and strategies for classroom seating arrangements: A qualitative study

Teachers can use seating arrangements to effectively manage classroom dynamics. However, what do teachers aim for and how are they trying to achieve this when creating seating arrangements? We conducted semi-structured interviews with 13 upper elementary school teachers. Teachers expressed to have both academic and social-emotional goals addressing the group and individual students. Although their goals were quite similar, teachers employed different, sometimes even opposite strategies to achieve them. Moreover, they adapted goals and strategies to specific group or individual student needs. Our findings add to the growing body of knowledge regarding teachers’ practices in managing classroom social dynamics.

The form of uncertainty affects selection for social learning.

Social learning is a critical adaptation for dealing with different forms of variability. Uncertainty is a severe form of variability where the space of possible decisions or probabilities of associated outcomes are unknown. We identified four theoretically important sources of uncertainty: temporal environmental variability; payoff ambiguity; selection-set size; and effective lifespan. When these combine, it is nearly impossible to fully learn about the environment. We develop an evolutionary agent-based model to test how each form of uncertainty affects the evolution of social learning. Agents perform one of several behaviours, modelled as a multi-armed bandit, to acquire payoffs. All agents learn about behavioural payoffs individually through an adaptive behaviour-choice model that uses a softmax decision rule. Use of vertical and oblique payoff-biased social learning evolved to serve as a scaffold for adaptive individual learning - they are not opposite strategies. Different types of uncertainty had varying effects. Temporal environmental variability suppressed social learning, whereas larger selection-set size promoted social learning, even when the environment changed frequently. Payoff ambiguity and lifespan interacted with other uncertainty parameters. This study begins to explain how social learning can predominate despite highly variable real-world environments when effective individual learning helps individuals recover from learning outdated social information.

Hybrid strategy for the seismic retrofitting of existing buildings through Base Isolation System

A hybrid procedure for seismic retrofit of an existing R.C. structure by using base isolation system is discussed in this paper. The case study is a high school building in Naples, built at the end of 1970s, as result of a gravity-load design approach. It consists of three jointed R.C. portions, having different features in plan and elevation. In particular, “Building 1” and “Building 2” are characterized by resisting frames only in transversal direction. These ones support the actions transferred by the floors, whose load-bearing elements are warped longitudinally. Both the two buildings are characterized by some R.C. shear walls, in correspondence of (internal/external) staircases. The three portions are separated by tight joints, whose width is inappropriate to avoid pounding damages due to earthquake shaking. Considering that the structure has no resisting frames in longitudinal direction, this school building has low seismic capacity longitudinally and a high lateral deformability, with a fundamental vibration period of TAS-IS =1.37s. In this case, seismic retrofit by using base isolation system has been necessary to improve its seismic response. On the other hand, the main aspects of modern capacity design approach are not complied with between dissipative and no-dissipative components. So, it is assumed that the current structural system has no ductility reserves, on local and global scale. For the seismic retrofit of the existing structure an “all rubber” base isolation system (BIS) has been assumed by using ϕ600 HDRBs, allowing to reach a TISO = 4.0s. To maximize the effectiveness of BIS, the three bodies have been connected at each floor level and the upper structure has been strengthened previously, reducing to TFB=0.30s the fundamental period of the strengthened fixed base solution. The proposed hybrid solution for seismic retrofitting merges two conceptually opposite design strategies, opting for BIS applied to an existing structure, stiffened ad hoc by using shear walls.

Проблема смысла смерти в эпосе Дж.Р.Р. Толкина «Властелин колец» Часть I. Издание «Властелина колец» и его исторические обстоятельства

This article deals with the theme of death in Tolkien’s trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”, which both the author himself and numerous researchers of his texts rec­ognized as the key to understanding of the entire religious and philosophical content of his work. Here this topic analyzed within the framework of the se­mantic opposition formulated by the concepts of “being towards death” and “es­caping from death”. The article attempts to compare how the theme of death is revealed in a new literary genre which developed during and shortly after the Second World War – the author’s fairy tale (intended primarily for adults) – and how this theme is presented in the concepts of post-war existentialism, espe­cially by Sartre and Heidegger. As a methodology for this comparison this article uses the theory of P. Ricoeur – according to which both literature and philosophy can be considered as two different and partly opposite strategies for “taming time” (by turning it into human time, the time of culture). In the context of this theory, the article also analyzes another problem related to the first one, namely the problem of the mutual influence of the “real world” of human history and the “fictional world” of a literary work. The article confirms the idea expressed by Ricoeur that large-scale events of history can be reflected in a literary work indi­rectly (namely by using complication of the spatio-temporal structure that forms the artistic world of the work). In particular, events such as world wars, which sharply raise the questions of the meaning of history and the meaning of human life, can find interpretation in literary works that “recreate” the space of life and meaning with their own narrative means, both in relation to the individual – and the world as a whole.